Convicted rapist David McFadden prowled the streets of Brooklyn last Tuesday morning for a victim, and eventually pounced on a 12-year-old girl trying to catch the B12 bus home after a night at her grandmother’s.

The 33-year-old registered sex offender sidled up to the sixth-grader, grabbed her buttocks and said, “You know you like that,” the criminal complaint against him charged.

“Can I suck on your lips?” he allegedly asked the girl before following her into a grocery store and grabbing her arm.

The terrified youngster broke free and ran across the street, telling McFadden she was going to get her older brother. She found two cops buying coffee in another shop and told them what happened.

Peering out from the back seat of an NYPD patrol car, she fingered McFadden several blocks away, and cops arrested him on sexual abuse and child endangerment charges.

McFadden, whose 10 aliases include John Smith Lips, according to police files, had a crack pipe and a woman’s earring in his pocket – and the brutal rape of a pregnant woman in his past.

There was also a warrant out for him as one of a growing number of sexual predators from the city who have thumbed their noses at the state Division of Parole by dodging the conditions of their release from prison.

Thousands of ex-cons skip parole every year, but it is the 35 rapists and pedophiles who are no longer under parole supervision that have concerned authorities and prompted the creation of a new “wanted” Web site for missing parolees.

“These guys are all absconders,” said parole spokesman Tom Grant. “We haven’t been able to find them.”

McFadden blew off his parole officer last May 26, nine months after he walked out of prison, where he served nearly 10 years for a 1991 rape.

In that case, he climbed a tree, clambered through a second-floor bathroom window to stand over his pregnant victim’s bed with a knife. He raped her, tied her up and stole some cash, a VCR and jewelry.

The mother of the girl allegedly assaulted by McFadden last week is angry.

“It really hurts me that he did that to my daughter,” she said. “She still plays with dolls and watches cartoons.

“I can’t understand why they let him out.”

Parole officials say the state Assembly has blocked efforts to enact a “civil commitment” law that would allow prosecutors to ask the court for permission to keep criminals deemed likely repeaters in secure facilities until they are no longer considered a public threat.

Similar laws are in force in 15 other states and have been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

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Out and on the run

Every year thousands of New York criminals skip parole. Among those missing are 35 rapists and pedophiles, although one was nabbed on a Brooklyn street last week:

NABBED: David McFadden, 33

Skipped parole in May, nine months after serving nearly 10 years for the rape of a pregnant woman. Nabbed in Brooklyn on Tuesday on charges of molesting a girl, 12. In custody awaiting a hearing.

At large: These sex-offender parolees have been on the run for more than 10 years: